Alestes sp.

Alestes is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Alestidae, the African characins. As suggested by the name, the Alestidae was formerly included in Characidae before that family was limited to South American fish. Myletes was a synonym of Alestes, which was also used for various South American serrasalmids but this name was suppressed by Opinion 1813 of the ICZN.

A picture published with the record for Alestes sp.. What it shows has not been checked.

Uncredited · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

Time the record covers

At least 38 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 1.8 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 21 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 21 occurrencesMiocene — about 12 of 21 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 7 of 21 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 21 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 1 occurrence10–8.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.9–7.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.3–5.7 Mya — about 4 occurrences5.7–4.1 Mya — about 4 occurrences4.1–2.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.5–875 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences41.03 Mya2.58 Mya49 Mya875 ka

21 occurrences of Alestes sp. on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

21 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

7 formations

Wembere-Manonga — 3.88°S, 33.72°EWembere-Manonga — 3.98°S, 33.96°ENkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°ENyaburogo — 1.00°N, 30.50°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EKakara — 1.00°N, 30.50°EShungura — 5.08°N, 36.03°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°E

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The named rock units Alestes sp. has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Alestes sp. and its relatives

Miocene

Where Alestes sp. and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

253 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Alestes sp., and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

13 references

Each of the 21 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 1 further reference is not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Alestes sp.

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Alestes sp. was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.